Twisted
by Aventri
Summary: Updated for Chap 4. Neji's realized that the new situation he's in might be the end of him. Team 7 getting stranger now that it consists of Sakura, Naruto, and Neji. Humorous story with most of the Naruto cast showing up and remaining In Character! Rea
1. Exploring The Alternative by Neil Simone

**Disclaimer:** Fine, I'll admit it... I don't own Naruto. Are you happy now?

**Author's Note:** My first fiction was a stab at serious storyline and maybe a slice at building romance. This, I'm not so sure. While it is NOT an AU storyline, it is. And while it is not a comedy, or romance, or angst, or whatever else... it is. Like the title, this story is like a line of those ideas twisted with their counterpart. It's a non-comedy interwoven with comedy. Everything and nothing. The story itself will be a multi-chaptered story in one hand, and a one-shot in another. Intrigued? Confused? I guess you'll have to read (And review! ... Please?!). The ideology of all of this will make sense later, right now we're just getting started...

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Neji slowly faded back into consciousness. Training to the point of exhaustion was a favorite pastime of his whenever his stress level would rise too much. His latest fatigue was a result of the orders he'd been given earlier that day, when his uncle had told him that within the coming year he was to be Hinata's personal body guard.

While the silver-eyed boy no longer believed in fate to the point where his death was predetermined; he did know that such a position would clip his wings from flying in any direction he could have chosen. A main house member's personal bodyguard had little time to themselves. So much of his future life would now be devoted directly towards Hinata, he wouldn't have time to be social, have friends, or even girlfriends for that matter. Of course, to Neji, those things didn't really have a ranking priority anyway, but it was the principle of the matter that irked him. It wasn't even a year ago that his uncle revealed the scroll his father had written him. The last words of his father gave him courage and inspired him to want more out of life. Now, the life chosen for him wasn't exactly what Neji would have picked for himself.

It was as if he was freed from one cage of destiny to be put into another. And so Neji had spent the day training alone and using all of his chakra. If each hit to the training dummies could alter his fate, Neji's future would have been unrecognizable. Every single one of his jyuuken styled attacks mutated and warped the dummy, every impact his palms inflicted had the rage of helplessness infused into its power. Neji worked long and hard, deep into the evening until his five minute break turned into a small nap.

When he awoke, it was past midnight. The hooting of the forest owls echoed far across the woods and bounced off the trees around him when he finally picked himself up. He noticed that his forehead protector had fallen down around his neck, possibly revealing the curse seal to anyone who could have wandered by. Slightly angry at himself for not tying it tight enough and for actually falling asleep, Neji replaced the protector and retied it around his forehead.

After blowing off some steam, Neji walked home a little less edgy about the events that took place earlier. He quietly moved through the house, careful not to wake anyone as he made his way into the branch members' part of the estate. His eyes shined in the pitch black darkness like a wild beast, stalking his way through the halls to his room. Without a sound he slid open the door and methodically stepped his way through the room, avoiding all of the unseen obstacles that littered his path. Without looking, Neji knew where to step over and beside, his somewhat messy room working against him like a mine field of traps. Finally he made it to the edge of his bed, and with complete exhaustion, he let out a long and labored sigh.

With his eyes closed, he let himself fall downwards toward the bed. Unfortunately, with his eyes closed, Neji wouldn't have time to notice the two startled eyes that beamed up at him until he hit the bed. And when he hit the bed, it was already too late.

Even though Neji was a member of the Hyuuga Branch family, he was still accustomed to the finer things in life. As a Hyuuga, a person was bred to hold the responsibilities of the name 'Hyuuga'. This included, but was not limited to higher standards of etiquette, regimented extra training schedules starting at an absurdly young age, expected higher marks that your peers in anything that could ever be graded, and a general regard for your actions as representing the oldest bloodline among Konoha village. In return, life, for the most part, was good. A Hyuuga would live like royalty, have one of the largest estates in the village, have a prime choice of foods, maintain excellent funding for private training areas and weaponry, and have an all around comfortable life style. One of the things included in a 'comfortable lifestyle' would be large rooms for every person, whether they were of the Main or Branch family, and a nice, big, comfortable, soft bed to sleep in.

Hyuuga Neji's bed was never so soft.

Hyuuga Neji's bed also never made an "Eeep!" sound before.

When he opened his eyes to the sudden sound, he instantly found silver eyes looking right back at him no more than an inch away from his face. Someone was in his bed, and before he knew it, before he could control it, his hands shot underneath him to prop himself up, to get off of this person. In his mind it was the right thing to do. After all, he thought, it's not proper to continue lying on people, especially when you're not actually sure who they are. One thing Neji did know now is that it wasn't his bed that was softer than he remembered it, it was the person he had his hands on.

Hyuuga Hinata's unique voice rang out in a scream that would wake the dead if they were as close as Neji was now.

"Iieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

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P.S. Sorry it's short. 


	2. Relativity by MC Escher

**Disclaimer:** One day, I plan on owning Naruto… and the world. Until then, I admit that I don't.

**Author's Note:** Does everyone know what R.O.D. stands for? "Read or die?" Close. It's Review or Die people! Not that I'm a hostile writer, I just am going to start using it cause it's clever, what with the anime of a similar name. So I swear this is not an AU, and I swear no one is OOC. Just bear with me and unravel the writing. Also, feel free to use the review to guess what this is all about, and write in with pairing suggestions after you figure it all out.

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The ensuing stampede that could be heard rushing down the hall following Hinata's blood curdling scream caused Neji to wonder how many people where coming, and just who they thought they were rescuing. The position he was now in with Hinata could cause a bit of confusion. The door to the room flew open and light from the hallway spilled into the room, letting everyone see in fully lit detail exactly what was happening: Neji propped up, hovering over a scantily clad Hinata, with one of the boy's hands precariously placed on the girl's chest.

Even having just started, this wasn't going to be a good day for Hyuuga Neji.

An elder branch member who stood in front of the herd of Hyuuga was caught in an interesting expression. There was pain in his scowl, and a touch of shock in eyes. It was the look that happens right as you go from anger to astonishment with a dash of "Oh Shit" mixed right in there.

Neji became like every child that got caught at something that they didn't have an excuse for. He was frozen; a statue. Unfortunately his lack of movement only helped burn the image into the minds of his onlookers.

It was on the tips of everyone's tongue. Neji could see themselves tossing ideas back and forth in their heads, finding exactly the perfect thing to yell at him. They had a desire; a need to say something, and he was actually surprised that it took as long as it did. After a second longer, they collectively regained their Hyuuga composure, and with completely masked frustration the elder calmly said one thing.

"Gomenasai."

The elder slowly closed the door as if nothing had happened. Neji, still unmoved in his state of shock watched the display and listened as footsteps could be heard walking away from the door. If it had not been for the sound of a light grunt under him, he might have stayed in that position till morning; the astonishment of not being yelled at registered as a critical error in his mind. Neji shot backwards, standing far away from the bed against the back wall. "Oh! Gomenasai Hinata-sama. Hontoni Gomenasai!"

As was proper etiquette, Neji was moving down to get on his hands and knees in a deep bow of resignation when he couldn't help but notice the faint blush that played across Hinata's cheeks. The next moment his forehead was pressed hard against the floor as his imagination began to create and invent the new ways that his uncle would kill him for being caught 'groping' Hinata. A part of Neji laughed at the idea of defying fate in such a perverted manner.

"Gomenasai Neji-sama. Please forgive me for yelling." The voice was calm, and softly spoken, but behind it was the sound of indignation.

And it confused the hell out of Neji.

Looking up slightly, Neji saw an unbelievable sight: Hinata, the chosen successor to the main house of Hyuuga, bowing to him, her forehead touching the floor just as Neji's head was.

"Hinata-sama?"

"Please don't call me sama, Neji-sama."

Neji sat up on his knees and fully took in the sight of the person he was supposed to respect; she was practically laid out in humility before him. It wasn't the first time he'd seen something like this, but it isn't exactly something he'd ever get used to.

"Please, raise your head."

After she sat up on her knees, he quietly got up and walked over to turn on the light switch. In the moment of brightness they both squinted for a second until their eyes had adjusted to the light.

"Neji-sama,"

He cut her off quickly, refusing to let her continue in what he considered foolishness or perhaps her mockery of him.

"Please stop calling me Neji-sama."

"But Neji-sama is Neji-sama."

He was tired; with the way things were going he didn't have the energy to fight this losing battle now and so he let it slide. "Fine, whatever."

"Neji-sama, may I ask what you are doing here?"

"Me? This is my room."

"I, I see." There was a pause in her voice; something that sounded like the idea was hard to accept.

Neji slowly made his way over to the door and slid it open. Standing beside the door frame, he folded his arms across his chest before glaring at her with stern look.

"Goodbye Hinata-sama. Go to your own bed and sleep please."

Hinata, without ever looking away from his scary face, stood up cautiously. She took two very nervous steps backwards, and sat on the edge of the bed in the middle of the mattress, her small legs dangling over the end of the tall bed. Neji closed his eyes in mental frustration. Was this Hinata showing her defiance? No, not defiance, Neji thought; it seemed to be she was exerting her Main House authority as best as her timid little body could.

Time was running out, and he knew it. By now, one of his fellow members of the branch house would have informed his uncle. Neji could practically feel the murderous intent in the wind that slid past the open door and moved through his lean frame.

"Hinata, for the last time, this is the branch house side of the estate. So if you want to be in the lowly branch house feel free to stay, otherwise leave now!"

All he had wanted was for her to leave. He had tried the nice approach with no results, and so he resorted to yelling… just a bit. Watching the obvious sting that she felt in his words made him realize he might have gone too far. He didn't mean to affect her as much as he did.

It wasn't until she started to wipe her eyes in a vain attempt to catch the tears before they fell that he noticed.

Hinata had bandages covering her forehead.

Something was wrong, Neji thought, it wasn't normal for any main house member to cover their forehead. As custom, and perhaps a bit of pride, main house members always let their bare foreheads show. There was something in the back of his mind yelling at him; something he didn't quite understand

Whatever was happening, Neji wanted to get down to the bottom of it, and fast. With large strides he crossed the room until he was an arms length away from Hinata. As he lifted his hands up to her, she flinched slightly in fear, and while he felt bad for scaring the poor girl, there was something he had to find out. While, he began to unwrap the bandages from her head, warning signs were going off left and right in his mind. When the curse seal peaked out from the cloth, there was just one last thing to check.

Neji dropped Hinata's bandages and moved his hands up to his forehead protector. When he loosened it, it fell down around his neck to reveal things only found in his dreams, nightmares, and fantasies. What Neji saw was something he only ever imagined.

His suspicions were coming true. The world had been turned upside down.

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**PS** Thank you to my wonderful, wonderful beta-reader **Rekino** who helped me pull myreckless writing together. Everyone should go check her writing out, it's very youthful, entergetic and all around an excellent read. Read her story named Hyuuga Engaged and I promise you that you won't be disappointed.

Thank you to the people who left reviews, I'm sorry that I'm such a slow writer, now that I have a beta-reader however I should be able to whip out better writing with more confidence even faster now ).

Rekino: You flatter me too much, I seriously don't deserve the amount of praise you give.

ShinakaStar: I see I've got you interested, but I think you're a bit mistaken... which should prove for all the more delicious fun.

Cookie: From what I can tell you're the unofficial sponsor of all things HinataxNeji, so I guess this stories for you, heh

Chibi: Good guesses, heh heh heh, now the fun can really start!


	3. The Persistence of Memory by Salvidor Da...

**Disclaimer:** Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Guess what my name is... not Masashi Kishimoto.

**Author's Note:** Has anyone noticed the extremely odd chapter titles? Well if you haven't figured it out yet, they're all painting titles and artist names. If you actually look them up you'll all be treated to very wonderful artists and their very unique works. Also, it might help you get an interesting "perspective" of the story. (I'm so clever...)

And keep reading and reviewing everyone, it means alot to me! ::smiles::

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In a man's life, there are things that he just cannot take. As much as they'd like to say that they are unbreakable, that they are invincible, that they are unmovable; there are things that can make a man breakdown. Like Achilles and his heel, even the undefeated can fall. The mind can do some very interesting things when it feels it's in danger or when it has lost grip of reality. 

In the case of Hyuuga Neji, the sight of his forehead sans the curse seal simply made the poor boy faint. But this wasn't the girly way of fainting that you're probably thinking of. No, this was more of a manly topple. It was probably to be expected of a person who had grown up fed on hatred of the main family, despised everything they've stood for, and raised himself in the fate of a caged bird.

At least he didn't scream.

And so, continuing in the misadventures of the stately Hyuuga lad. You could only feel bad for him when he woke up the next morning in a bed that should have been his own... but wasn't.

* * *

Neji's eyes slowly fluttered open to reveal silver irises contracting in response to the golden rays of the morning sun that, he swore, tried to blind him. With the beams of the dawn peaking through his window, he'd known that he had accidentally over slept. Usually members of the Hyuuga house, whether main or branch were up well before it stopped being considered 'night' by most of Konoha's populace. What surprised him was that no one had yet come to wake him up and lecture him on his lack of discipline. In the Hyuuga estate, nothing ever slipped the notice of a Byakugan user; Neji's punishment was guaranteed to come. 

To a tired and resigned Neji, what was ten more minutes of sleep?

Rolling away from the accursed sunlight, Neji flopped onto the other half of the bed only to land half of his body on a soft lump in the bed. A soft, body length lump in the bed. A soft, warmth generating, body length lump in the bed that just so happened to go "Eeep."

Life in the Hyuuga Estate was never considered 'normal'.

Hyuuga Hinata had actually been awake for hours by now, having woken up at the proper Hyuuga time. When she felt a sudden "attack" on her innocense, it was just a knee jerk reaction that caused her to squeal. The timid little girl proceeded to peek her head out from the blanket top and look at Neji. She determined that before he claimed her body that she should probably say hello. After all, it was the polite thing to do.

"G... good morning."

That's when she saw him. Shirtless, with his untied hair splayed across his rigid, muscle-toned frame. As if being forced to sleep beside him wasn't embarrassing enough, the thought that Neji was as pretty as any of the girls she knew made the blush that painted her cheeks all the more red. It was just another reason in her mind to stay concealed by the covers.

Bleary eyed, Neji stared back and in his sleepy stupor. He responded in turn without even thinking, "Good morning."

In a person's life, there are certain things that can cause a person to become completely alert, awake and cognitive. Mothers have been known to exert superhuman strength when their beloved child is in immediate danger. Men will fight like monsters when their loved ones are threatened or even worse, harmed. The 'awakening' in Neji was caused when he realized he was in bed with a girl. No, no, not just a girl; his cousin.

Coffee is for pansies.

* * *

An hour later at the dinning room table, a special late breakfast was being brought out to the young Hyuugas. Neji watched the plates delicately slide onto the table as his server said something. Not that he could hear it mind you; the only thing he heard was the still constant drum beat of his heart rapping loudly against his rib cage. A trip to the hospital would be in order later to check for mild heart attacks. 

Hinata received her food graciously, thanking the server audibly even though she herself could only also hear her heart pounding. She had never slept with a boy before, and even though the previous night had been pretty eventless, minus Neji feeling her chest, she'd expected a little more considering how many people winked and gave her advice before she went back to bed.

There was a part of her that felt a little guilty though for nothing happening. To Hinata, Neji coming into her room and jumping on her was a sign that the leader of the Main House had chosen her to be his bride. It was supposed to be an honor. The fact that he immediately started touching her chest impressed upon her that she was supposed to preform ... something. And the while she knew that, she couldn't help but sleep on the opposite layer of the covers all night long. When he was under the blanket, she slept on top. When he kicked off his covers, she buried herself in deep.

She wondered if he'd be more aggressive tonight and then turned beet red.

Neji calmed down enough to actually notice the food set before him. Two eggs over easy sat side by side, and the two pieces of bacon met at their bottom ends forming a"V". Somehow, the way it all touched looked like a heart. He squinted in disbelief, hoping that when he opened his eyes, it's just be breakfast again. He should have known that, just like most of his life, he'd open his eyes to disappointment.

Before he could say anything mean about the food before him, he lifted his head to talk to Hinata and noticed her crimson shade. Neji the mind reader, didn't even want to know what made her blush as hard as she did, but before he could dismiss it in his mind, he realized he was blushing too. He knew that she must be thinking something about him... something about him that was probably ecchi.

It was then, while he was trying to clear his thoughts that he could over hear the whispers of the house.

"He what?!"

"That's right, Neji-sama went right into Hinata-chan's room and lunged at her!"

"I just brought them their food, and I could hear both of their hearts going 'doki-doki.' It must be true love."

"I heard tossing and turning of the covers throughout the night. Who would have thought that teenagers could have so much stamina!"

"Well, they are ninja after all."

Between all of the little gossip that was being spread, there was an infinite amount of giggling. It was the giggling that set him off. Neji stood up fast from his chair and slammed his hands down on the table.

"That's it! Come on Hinata, we need to head off to train. Let's go."

When he noticed her following him side by side for a while after she should have already turned off, he stopped and spoke to her.

"Hinata, I didn't mean for you to train with me."

Hinata paused for a second with a slightly confused look on her face before continuing to walk in the same direction Neji was heading, now a few paces behind him. But the echoing of her footsteps persistently behind him made him stop a few minutes later to reprimand her for the second time.

"You can go train with your own squad now Hinata."

Hinata looked around curiously with a shy smile painted on her face. To her this was just a weird little game that Neji had thought up. After another brief pause she continued walking in the same direction as Neji. This time he tried to endure her footsteps longer. If he could just make it to his usual training area, he told himself, everything would be fine. If he could just beat up Lee for a few rounds and then be left alone to destroy a couple trees, then that would help him calm down.

"So Neji-sama, what are you doing in this part of the woods again?"

Neji could no longer keep it in.

"Hinata, go away!" He was desperate to get away from her and the thoughts that accompanied her when he looked at her. All he had wanted was to train for a bit and clear his head. " If you won't listen to me as the main house leader, then you should at least listen to me as your elder!"

That's when she chuckled at him.

Neji was starting to lose it. Going from the respected loner of the esteemed Hyuuga branch household to becoming the center of unwanted, gossipy, ecchi attention was starting to take a toll on the young man. And now, even away from the family whispers that crept down hallways, and vibrated through thin walls, things were only being made worse with Hinata's sudden development of "cute" stubbornness.

"Hey!"

Her voice chimed out distinctively to Neji. _Finally_ he'd meet up with someone he could trust to be sane ever since this insane day started; Tenten. She was always there when he silently needed her, and to him, she'd come to his rescue just in the nick of time today.

"Maybe you should stop picking on Hinata and go train with people your own age, Neji-chan."

"Tenten-san, you don't need to..." said Hinata trying to defend Neji.

Neji-chan?!

What Neji did, you couldn't call snapping. Snapping is what happens when you try to bend a toothpick in two. No, what Neji did was more like when you ax apart firewood. Neji split from the calm of reality, and without warning he flew at the brown eyed girl in a blind rage.

Neji-chan?!

She who once had nothing but respect for Neji was now calling upon him with cutesy, little childish honorifics. As his mind broke down all he could think of was getting that respect back with force. When they trained together Tenten would always tell him to not hold back because she was a girl, and now she was going to get it.

A flash of speed and green appeared in front of Neji before he could close half of the distance between him and the weapons mistress. The bold, round eyes of Rock Lee, the human roadblock, were filled with the determination of doing what was right as an honor to Gai Sensei, even though the eccentric teacher wasn't there. Lee's speed shocked Neji out of his attack.

When was Lee this fast?

"I'm sure Naruto is probably already looking to challenge you by the bridge, Neji-kun. You should probably go meet him and Sakura-san there."

"Maybe Neji-sama should go now, I'm sure his group is waiting for him, right?" said Hinata, interrupting with a polite smile.

Neji glared into the strangely fearless eyes of Rock Lee for a moment before stealing a glance at Tenten, who was already waiving an enthusiastic and sarcastic goodbye to him. Neji turned and slowly began making his way out of the forest not wanting to continue the fight against his fellow leaf ninja, especially when the odds were against him.

Fuming, he walked and mulled over what just happened. Who was that mean girl who dressed up like Tenten? And when was Lee ever that fast? One thought after another rose to the surface of his conscience as his anger faded away. It only took a moment longer before it dawned on him, a thought so out of this world that he'd never even conceivably imagine it.

But the pieces of the puzzle were fitting together Hinata's chuckle, Tenten's honorific, Lee's suggestion. Neji realized what all the signs were pointing to and couldn't help but voice his thoughts out loud to give them life.

"Hinata is older than me..." It was more of a question than a statement that Neji put to words to help him possibly figure out all the who; what, where and why of all the weirdness that had befallen him starting since last night. "Wait, if that's true then... I'm in Naruto's ninja group?!"

Yes, even ninjas could have really bad days.

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**Added A.N. **Once again let me start off by saying that the lovely, and talented **Rekino**, myBeta-reader has made this chapter possible so fast after I finished it. With her expert words an guiding this chapter isn't nearly as clunky and unreadable asit could have been, (whew). Everyone can help me out with sending her pestering emails to keep working on her "Hyuugas Engaged" story cause it's excellent. 

I'd also like to thank **Sintari**,with whom I had a wonderful talk about the Hyuugas and this story line and who convinced (cough-ordered-cough)me to stop being lazy and start writing this chapter immeadiately. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you want to talk anything about the Hyuuga's -this is one of the people you need to talk to. Go read ...heck anything she's written, her words are Gold.

Thank you to my reviewers Cookie6, Chibi, Rekino, Sintari, and the excellent post and review by the Anon person -great guessing...

And now it's time to blame all those brilliant authors who have been writing such good stories that have made me read rather than write. I promise you'll love these stories:

**Dizzcity - Five Pins**

**Sintari- Rosemary for Rememberance**

**Pretty Cherry - In Your Shadows **

**Spazacious - In the Shadow**


	4. Stopped Moment by Vladimir Kush

**A.N**. - The long coming chapter 4. I know. I suck. Thanks for everyone encouraging me to continue writing. Every once and a while my inferiority complex kicks in and I feel like I'm crap, that no one cares and that my writing is pretty much lame. I not exactly sure it's not true yet, but oh well.

* * *

The three ninjas sat down to an early dinner at the noodle shop after their most strenuous mission of picking weeds from all of the village elders' gardens. From what Neji could tell, all they grew were weeds. That was probably a contributing factor to why he got yelled at so much throughout the day. But as far as he was concerned, if the elders could tell the difference between regular weeds and so-called "herbs" then it was all the more reason for them to do the work themselves. 

However, it's not that Neji couldn't do the mission correctly. It's that the just-realized Hyuuga heir had a lot on his mind, for instance, how on earth he'd become the Hyuuga heir when yesterday he was certain he was a member of the Branch House. Neji also pondered the ramifications of other curiosities, such as being on a team with Naruto. Naruto, on the other hand, was less concerned about being on a team with Neji and more concerned about how to smoothly steal Neji's untouched bowl of ramen. Pointing off into the distance behind Neji, Naruto began to make a big show of being surprised.

"Neji look! Tsunade-Obachan is running around half naked!"

Forgetting that Neji could actually see behind him without taking his eyes off the ramen, the blond-haired ninja quickly switched bowls with the Hyuuga boy. Neji, who was lost in heavy thought, noticed the poor excuse of trickery but paid no attention to it. Naruto took Neji's lack of concern as a sign of his success and attributed the win to the great ninja skills that would one day earn him the title of Hokage.

Staring off into the empty bowl, Neji finally came out of his thoughts to give his mind a break. He started taking in his surroundings, first looking to the left, watching as Naruto inhaled the stolen noodles. Looking to his right he saw Sakura; the pink haired-kunoichi sat quietly, slowly and politely eating her ramen. It wasn't the first time that Neji saw the girl, but it was the first time he'd really notice her. Neji knew that she was part of the Sasuke fan club, if not its president, and that the girl supposedly had some of the most efficient chakra using skills around.

It was only after he noticed her blushing that Neji realized he was staring.

Really though, she was a rather cute girl, Neji could admit that. He was sure that she could be a really nice girl if it wasn't for the whole, evil inner-personality thing. He was also sure that he'd never thought things such as a girl being cute or even nice before. For a second, Neji wondered if he was the crazy one and if everyone else was just normal. Whatever this reality was, Neji knew it was having an affect on him.

But no matter how where he was, Neji was starting to realize some things about the new world he was living in. He realized that he'd come home the night before and accidentally groped Hinata's chest, only to be caught by, literally, every Hyuuga Branch member and their mother. He realized his old team now thinks he's just a snobbish brat, and wants nothing to do with him. Lastly, he realized that his new team is comprised of a ramen eating boy with a demon in his stomach, and a blushing girl with her own "demon" that comes out when she's mad at Naruto.

The difference between this life and hell, Neji surmised, was that hell was rumored to be warmer.

"I think I'm going to go home now."

"Ah! Neji, um... do you mind walking me home tonight?" Sakura became very quiet and turned a shade of pink just lighter than her hair color. She was bold, and yet shy at the same time.

Neji looked at her half finished bowl of noodles before looking back to her. "Don't you want to finish eating your dinner?"

"What? Oh no, I'm on a diet."

Sakura paled slightly as her stomach began protesting her forfeit of food with an audible growl. After a second of continued stomach grumbling, she offered up a nervous chuckle to cover the noise. Meanwhile, Naruto's eyes had become fixed on acquiring another bowl of free noodles now with the added bonus of those noodles having belonged to Sakura.

"I-i-indirect… k-kiss…" muttered Naruto quietly under his breath as he started unconsciously making kissing lips while grabbing Sakura's bowl.

Neji winced and ignored Naruto slowing pulling the dish towards his mouth in preparations of a make out session. Rather than argue with Sakura and be forced to witness Naruto's obsession first hand, he agreed to walk the girl home.

* * *

Strolling down the silent streets of Konoha with Sakura actually happened to be quite relaxing for the Hyuuga boy. Instead of the annoying chatter that he expected from Sakura, their walk was rather quiet. Under Neji's soul-piercing stare, he started to learn a lot about the girl. While the girl did have a smaller amount of stamina and chakra, he could tell that she was a very determined person with a very strong spirit. He also saw, that each time he'd look at her, whether it was a glance or a gaze, the girl would start blushing uncontrollably. It actually came to the point where he found it to be humorous; the ability to have such power without doing anything at all.

Previously, he never had time to really consider other people as, well, people. He had soaked up so much of his time proving to people that he was a genius and working hard to fulfill his passive aggressive vengeance against the Main House. Now that he _was_ the Main House, a new life had been opened up to him.

"Well, this is where I live."

Sakura stopped suddenly in front of him before turning around to face him. Her quick twirl spun her dress up into the air playfully as she looked straight into his silver eyes. That's when he understood what was going on. It was a mix of Sakura's determination and blushing that made him realize just what thoughts were playing through that intelligent head of hers.

She had set it up all along. Giving up dinner when she was hungry, not caring if Naruto did weird things with her bowl, and the unusual amount of quietness where all clues that Neji carelessly dismissed. She was going to do something drastic!

"Well Sakura, I should be g-"

"Neji-kun," Sakura started as she cut him off, "thank you for walking me home."

"It was nothing…" Neji was already backing up, trying to leave the caustic situation.

"No, I should pay you with something nice to thank you."

The fact that Sakura's face was redder than her hair was an interesting combination. But that was beside the point. Any and all thoughts that Neji had during his walk about this reality being a nice one, he regretted. Not only did he regret those thoughts, but in his soul he also atoned and repented for them. He then made a quick promise to himself to not think those thoughts again until he was back to the real world.

Sakura took a nervous step forward and closed her eyes. She leaned forward on the tips of her toes to compensate for their height difference and reached out with her lips for his. After a second of holding her body in that position, of waiting for Neji to meet her half way, she opened her eyes. Sakura realized that next time she should probably start off with hoping that Neji would actually stay with her rather than running away. With her hands cupping her cheeks that were on fire, she let out an innocent yet clueless sigh.

"Neji-kun is so shy."

* * *

"Ah! There you are bastard!"

Naruto jumped down from a tree branch in front of Neji ready to fight. Neji saw the short, blonde-haired ninja standing directly in his path to the Hyuuga Estate and without pause quickly adjusted his direction to walk around the boy.

"Hey! Don't ignore me! You can't just go off walking my girlfriend home without me paying you back."

Uponhearing that, Neji raised a hand to Naruto; a make-shift signal of "quiet please". Silently, calmly, Neji made sure not to make any sudden movements infront of an angry and growingly perplexed Naruto. Reaching into his items pouch, Neji double checked to make sure that his ninja pills had not been replaced by hallucinogens. One could never be too sure about these sort of things.

Putting his items back away, Neji sighed. It seemed that there were no easy answers in this world.


End file.
